Stolen Kiss (The Turners of Copper Island #2)

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jason

B ack in his natural habitat, Jason flicked through his personal recipe book deciding on menu choices to feature as wedding options for future events. With so many different food allergies and intolerances, he had his work cut out to please everyone. He’d already dropped Heidi off at her house to continue her hangover.

Daisy, Luke and Archer filed in with Erica bringing up the rear carrying a bag. She lifted it up and plonked it on the stainless steel counter.

“Ready for the pow wow?” Luke asked.

“As I’ll ever be,” Jason replied.

Erica pulled out five travel mugs and handed them out. Then they all looked expectantly at Jason.

“Oh, I see. I’m the chef therefore there are biscuits?”

“You baked cookies?” Daisy asked, with long strides to the dry stores. She came back out hugging a large plastic box with a lid. “He made cookies,” she confirmed.

“Break them out,” Luke said. “I need the sugar.”

“So, where are we at with Aunt Cynthia?” Daisy asked, looking through the box, choosing carefully.

“Bailey says she is staying in her rooms for the foreseeable future. Jennifer says she’s hell on wheels and Maggie is rolling her eyes. Ralph won’t even come into the house. Apparently he got a telling off because the grass was too long. His reply that it’s November and he shouldn’t be cutting the grass was not welcome.”

“And how will her hiding affect what we want to achieve here?” Jason said.

“Hopefully nothing unless she starts playing games with shipments and staffing.”

“Sorry I’m late,” Stan said as he burst in through the back door of Edward Hall kitchens.

Archer looked to Jason who shrugged. They then looked to Luke and Daisy who was still looking at the box of cookies but not taking one.

When Luke shrugged too, they stared at Daisy, momentarily ignoring an out of breath Stan.

Archer cleared his throat. “One, pick a fucking cookie and two did you invite Stan?”

She snatched up a biscuit and then closed the lid looking over at Stan with his hands on his hips.

“Yeah, he called earlier to say there was a problem. I thought it would be best we tackle all problems at the same time.”

Erica giggled at her thinking. Jason sighed as most people tackled one problem at a time. Daisy? She went headlong into everything at the same time.

“You want some coffee and cookies?” Daisy asked.

“Is there scotch in either of them?” Stan replied.

“No, why?” Jason asked.

Stan put his hand in his trouser pocket and pulled out a tool. He dropped it on the metal counter causing a clang to echo around the kitchen. The Turners were sitting in a row on the stainless steel work bench except Jason who hadn’t moved from his menu selecting station.

“You need a new spanner?” Archer asked. “McKenzie can help you with that.”

“No, well it seemed like a humourous ice breaker when I originally thought about it, but then when Daisy answered the phone and she said Luke was here too, I thought it might not go down well. Because the four of you aren’t supposed to be back together until late Spring. If you’re all here together then you already have a problem. I’d bought it and I have no idea what a spanner might be for in real life. It was supposed to be a metaphorical reference.”

Jason didn’t think he’d heard Stan speak to many words in the same conversation.

“Why the spanner?” Daisy asked frowning.

“It’s supposed to be me throwing a spanner in the works,” Stan said.

“Oh shit. What does Remi want now?” Jason asked.

“Not Remi. Edward Hall,” Stan said.

All of them including Stan looked to the ceiling.

They all dropped down from the table, one by one. Archer folded his arms across his chest, Luke shoved his hands in his pocket. Daisy reached for her phone and Erica took a long sip of her coffee. Jason flipped his menu folder shut. The slap echoed across the kitchen.

“What about Edward Hall?” Archer asked.

“The rooms are not up to spec.”

“Which inspection failed?” Jason asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

“All of them,” Stan answered and took a full step back.

“What?” Archer asked.

“Name the top three,” Luke said.

“Health & Safety quoted emergency access, the electrics and accessible access.”

“Fuck,” Luke said.

“When are they coming back?”

“They said the new year, but I explained we need to have a pass for Christmas Eve, so they’ve agreed to come back on 20 th December.”

“How much?” Daisy asked, stuffing a third cookie in her mouth while Stan another full step back. He was almost the door he came through.

“Half a million,” he said and looked to the door and then to the cookies. Jason thought he was going to make a grab for them and run out of the building.

Archer, Erica, Jason, Luke and Daisy were silent staring at Stan.

“When were they last inspected?” Erica asked.

Good question, Jason thought. All he could think about was none of them had that kind of money, even if they pooled their money and sold everything they owned. Then he briefly thought about the Turner ring he had in his sock drawer. That was easily a million. Would Mrs Diamond have that kind of cash, he wondered.

“The paperwork they came with said nine years. They inspect every two years so I’m assuming your aunt told them not to bother seven years ago because she had no intention of keeping the business open. There are quite a few laws that have changed in that time and where this building only barely passed on the last inspection, it doesn’t have a hope right now.”

Jason bent down, one hand flat on the counter top and the other was rooting around underneath. He stopped moving and brought a bottle of rum up and twisted off the cork. He then opened the lid of his coffee mug and tipped a double shot in. “I’ll take that coffee now,” Stan said, eyeing the bottle of dark rum.

“I’ll pay,” Erica said.

“What?” Archer said.

“I’ll pay. Make me a partner in the business and I can deposit a loan into the business. Then you’ll have the money you need to get this building up to scratch.”

She was all business about her proposal. Daisy perked up, going back to her phone.

“You can’t do that, it’s too much,” Jason said.

“I’m family now, right?” she asked and Archer smiled, moving to her side to kiss her temple.

“You are, honey,” Archer said.

“So let me do this. It’s your business so you can bring whoever you want in to improve it. Your aunt doesn’t have a say. We have it all done professionally like I’m investing in a start-up.”

“It could work,” Luke said.

Then he turned to Erica and said, “if you’re sure.”

“I am. What’s the point in having money if I can’t put it to good use. You need it and I have it.”

“Um,” Stan said, leaning forward and placing a second spanner on the countertop.

“How many spanners have you got?” Luke asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied.

“Yes, it fucking does,” Luke said, turning his full body to Stan.

“McKenzie would only sell me a pack of spanners, said he wasn’t splitting up a pack when I didn’t know what size I wanted.”

Daisy put her hand to her mouth and tried and failed to hide her laugh. Luke’s lips twitched into a smirk.

“Christ,” Jason said. “What is the second spanner for?”

“We live on an island. Resources are limited. We’re in November.”

“Was that included in your half a million?”

“No, half a million gets us ready for summer next year.”

“How much to get us ready for December 20 th ?”

Stan moved to the door to outside and made sure the door was unlocked. “Three times that.”

“Well at least, he’s checked, knowing we’d ask,” Daisy said, ever the practical one.

Erica turned to them all and raised her eyebrows. “I still have the money and willing to hand it over, but you guys need to make a decision of you want to cancel Remi now and wait until next year or spend the money and cater her wedding.”

“Good job we’re all here,” Daisy said. “Should we take this back to the cottages?”

“Should I go?” Stan called over from his position.

“Can you email us the report?” Daisy asked.

She’d moved from cookie monster to no nonsense financial business advisor in three sentences. Jason wanted to hug her. He thanked the universe for blessing them with a sister who could multitask. She was still studying, but she was asking all the right questions.

“I’ll do that when I get back to the office. Call me when you have jobs for me to do. I can co-ordinate what you need doing while Luke and Daisy are on the mainland.”

Stan had also moved from scaredy-cat to problem solver and Jason again thanked the universe that Archer had convinced him to stay on.

“Thanks Stan. Talk soon,” Daisy said.

Stan left and Archer pulled the rum bottle from Jason’s hands, pulled off the cork and took a swig straight from the bottle.

“I use that for cooking,” Jason said.

“I’ll replace it,” Archer countered.

“Come on, let’s go. Problems to solve and Luke and I only have a few hours until it’s back to video calls.”

Daisy snapped her fingers and pointed to the door Stan was a minute before and they all fell in line behind her.